


fed me a line

by Hokuto



Series: (Nice Dream): The Gaps In Between [10]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Conversations, Dark, Gen, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-09-14
Updated: 2011-09-14
Packaged: 2017-10-23 18:07:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,722
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/253307
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hokuto/pseuds/Hokuto
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Itachi deals with the seal and makes a hospital visit.  Set during the end of chapter 12 of "(Nice Dream)."</p>
            </blockquote>





	fed me a line

As soon as Itachi was out of the apartment he had to lean against the outside wall to fight down the seal still trying to spread. He heard Anko shouting, but that only made it worse - _traitor liar traitor can't trust her kill h-_ and he pushed himself away again, towards the stairs. The seal burned against his skin, not with the pain of earlier but almost caressing, whispering offers of power. _Give in and I'll give you strength, enough to crush your enemies and protect him - more power than you can dream of..._

 _No_ , and Itachi forced himself to remember his brother's face with the pitiless clarity of the sharingan: pale and frightened, eyes wide as Itachi had shouted, then gone.

Three years. Three years Itachi had done everything he could think of, he had worked to take care of Sasuke and rebuild the trust he had killed with their family until Sasuke didn't run from him at every sudden movement, and one minute of temper had broken everything again. Snapped it like -

\- _like bones like necks like puppets like_ -

He had to control himself; he covered the seal with his hand and breathed, in and out, remembering with each breath Sasuke's fear, until he felt the seal recede, and then he walked away.

* * *

Itachi found himself at the hospital; he briefly considered taking Anko's advice and asking someone to look at the cursed seal, but it was calm for now, and he went instead to the front desk to ask for a room number. The nurse gave it to him with an odd look, but Itachi was used to those.

He opened the door to room 311 quietly and saw Naruto halfway out of the window, still wearing a hospital gown and trailing an IV.

Itachi said, "Shouldn't you be resting, Naruto-kun?"

Naruto jumped and hit his head on the window-pane. "Ow! I - uh - whoa!" and Itachi caught one of his pinwheeling arms and pulled him back inside just before he toppled out of the window. Naruto sprawled back on the bed, panting, and said, "Whew - thanks, Itachi-nii!"

Something inside Itachi warmed a little at that; Naruto only called him "Itachi-nii" when Sasuke wasn't around, and as small a gesture as it was, he appreciated it. "I don't think you're quite ready to leave the hospital yet," he said. "Certainly not by the window..."

"But it's so _boring_ ," Naruto groaned, "and they won't even let me have ramen - if I got some ramen I'd be totally fine in no time, yanno!"

Itachi doubted that; he didn't need the sharingan to sense that Naruto's chakra levels were still dangerously low - but he was getting distracted. He let his hand fall to one of his concealed kunai and asked, "Naruto-kun, did you know that Sasuke was training with Orochimaru?"

"He _what_?" Naruto shot upright again, wide-eyed. "Wait, is that who that creepy snake guy - oh, crap!"

"You didn't know, then," said Itachi.

Naruto shook his head, his fists tightening on the blanket. "That jerk - he never said anything about freakin' _Orochimaru_ ," he said, and there was nothing but honest anger on his face. "I mean, he was acting kinda weird, but I thought it was 'cause of - something else, I guess... Argh!" Naruto fell back on the bed and flung his arms out. "And he didn't tell me, even though it was a creep like that... Geez, that guy - he's my best friend, yanno, but he can be a total asshole sometimes!"

"I suppose so," Itachi said; slightly relieved, he took his hand away from the kunai and pulled the room's single chair over to sit down. A treacherous host couldn't be allowed in the village, of course, but Itachi hadn't particularly wanted to kill Naruto.

Naruto was talking again, and Itachi listened to the enthusiastic rise and fall of his voice without hearing the words. It was normal, comforting, but Itachi's mind couldn't settle; the seal on his shoulder whispered and gnawed at him, and he asked, "Why?"

"- and Gaara was like - huh? Why what?"

"Why didn't Sasuke turn Orochimaru over to ANBU?" Itachi said. "Why would he go near that man?" He couldn't understand it, it didn't make sense, because it wasn't like Sasuke at all. Sasuke got top grades in school, Sasuke trained hard to become strong, Sasuke did well in all his missions and wanted to join ANBU and looked out for his friends, and yet he had spent a month hiding a man who wanted to see all of Konoha dead. Somehow when Itachi had been away Sasuke had become a stranger, and Itachi couldn't understand. "Why?"

"I - I dunno," said Naruto, smiling nervously. If Itachi didn't know better he would have thought that Naruto was lying, but Naruto didn't have a deceptive bone in his body. "It's pretty strange, huh... Hey, wait, how come you're back already? You were in Suna, right? Did you find out about Orochimaru sneaking in or something?"

"Yes, I -"

He had gotten through Sasori's defenses with the old woman's help, broken past the hollow faces of puppets that had once been friends, comrades, parents and families ( _brothers_ ), and he had driven a kunai through the puppetmaster's preserved heart only to hear Sasori laugh. "Aren't you wasting your time here? One of my spies told me that my old partner decided to visit his home town," as blood leaked out of the wooden carapace, staining the sand red.

Itachi had retrieved his kunai, ordered Tenzo and Hinoko to return to Suna, and given the puppet Sasori had made of himself to the old woman. She hadn't blinked. "Well, that's the last of my family Konoha can kill," she had said, her voice dry and calm. "No, don't apologize. He was a missing-nin, after all, might as well have been you as anyone - least it wasn't that damned Hatake. Better run on home, boy."

Itachi hadn't been sure what to say to Chiyo when the body of her grandson lay at her feet, so he had quickly wrapped a bandage around his wounded leg and bowed to her, and then he had run home.

Naruto was too young to hear about human puppets and the old scars of the war with Suna.

"- I found out from someone that Orochimaru had returned to Konoha," he said, "so I came back to stop him. I was a little late, though - I'm sorry you were mixed up in this, Naruto-kun."

"Nah, it's fine," Naruto said, sitting up again. "I only saw him for like a second, yanno, then he took off with Sasuke and me and Haku had to take care of Gaara. What a creep! What's he want with Sasuke, anyway? If I see him again I'm gonna - hey, are you okay?"

Itachi instinctively reached to cover the seal, but it hadn't activated again. Of course, he still hadn't had a chance to clean up properly today - Naruto had just noticed that and started worrying. He had a kind heart; it was good that he had become Sasuke's friend. "Yes, I'm fine," Itachi said, and he put on a smile. "It was a long trip from Suna and I'm a little tired, that's all. Tell me, how have things in Konoha been? You haven't gotten into too much trouble, have you?"

"No, no way! Uh, well - maybe a little," Naruto said, and he launched into an excited retelling of the month that Itachi had been gone. Itachi listened with quiet, slightly horrified amusement to Naruto's stories, until Naruto had talked himself out and dozed off; he pulled the hospital blanket up to cover Naruto so he wouldn't catch a cold and left.

A woman in a Root jacket was waiting for Itachi in the hall outside. "Captain," she said, "you've been ordered to report to Commander Danzo and the council at once. They're meeting in ANBU headquarters, due to the condition of the Hokage's tower."

Of course Danzo had heard. That damned - _no_. "I understand," Itachi said. "I'll be there shortly." The woman looked slightly familiar, and he asked, "Miyu-san, isn't it? How is Captain Hana doing?"

The woman hesitated a moment, then said, "It's Aya right now. And Captain Hana continues to perform her duties adequately."

"I'm glad to hear it," said Itachi, and put on another smile for her. "Please tell her hello for me."

"Yes, Captain," Miyu - Aya - said; she hesitated again before adding, "Good luck," and then she vanished.

He didn't follow her immediately, as he should have; instead he closed his eyes and began to curse Danzo in his mind at length, with every foul word he had ever heard from missing-nin or his fellow ANBU. He knew what Danzo wanted, what he would ask for, and he had so little he could use to protect Sasuke. _Sasuke - why? How could you take such a risk? Why?_

 _He knows_ , and Itachi heard Orochimaru's low, ugly laugh. _He hates you, and I told him everything you've done - he'd do anything to bring you down, he'll never forgive you -_

It didn't matter. Itachi rested his forehead against the cool, polished hospital wall. It didn't matter, it didn't matter, he knew that Sasuke would never forgive him; he had known that for three years and it didn't _matter_. He had chosen Sasuke's hatred, and as long as Sasuke and Konoha were safe, nothing else mattered.

 _Safe?_ the seal hissed. _He'll tear down Konoha to get to you - he'd watch it burn and never care, if it meant killing you. Which would you choose? Could you stop him without destroying him, weak as you are?_

Crow's wings fluttered in his mind, and an eye blinked, black and red. Yes. If Sasuke couldn't be trusted, there was the eye and its embedded command. Yes, Shisui's last gift could fix it all, could stop Sasuke before Danzo tried to take his eyes or -

Itachi's eyes opened and he saw his reflection in the wall, blackness eating its way up his cheek. No. Not that way. There had to be another way. Sasuke still had his friends, he was still bound to the village, if he still hadn't realized the danger he was in - well, that was why he still had a brother in Konoha.

Itachi breathed out, watched the seal fade, and went to face Danzo.


End file.
